Both Angela and Natural Citizen are correct, but I think it would help to dig a bit deeper and understand why the methods they mentioned work.
I'll get to crates in a sec, but it is a very similar principle. First lets tackle why he doesnt like the collar / leash yet. Its also a major concept that needs to be understood.
We experience everything in our lives associatively. That means that we either create new associations for new experiences or use previous experiences with existing associations, and that goes for every object and situation we encounter. So it isnt just about specific items like leashes, toys or food, but everything. This goes for humans and animals, and is the foundation of how we learn to expect outcomes of situations through individual experiences. Ouch, fire bad, fire cause pain, negative association, see fire again, dont put hand in fire. Well, fire actually has a pretty deeply rooted instinctual desire to run away from, so probably poor example. Baby birds are fed worms by parent birds, thus, association is formed that worms is yummy, find worms, eat worms, yummy. The experience each individual experiences, whether human or animal, can create an associative response. I know a guy that uses a rolled up newspaper to make loud noises that he uses to intimidate his dog into submission. I dont like what he does, but what he is doing is building a negative association with newspapers. A lot of dogs have certain things they are afraid of because of a previous experience that created a negative association with the item. This can include Collars and Leashes. One good thing about associative memory is that we can change the emotional context of all of these associations. And that is going to be key in getting him "leash trained".
So now we know that the first step in what needs to be done is to create a new emotional context with the collar and leash. Next time you want to take Newman for a walk, bring the collar and leash but dont put it on him just yet. Put them in front of him, then we need to make the whole thing a positive experience for him. Offer your own calmness and praise when he sees the collar / leash and his response isnt one of fear. If he is fearful, put it the leash on the ground and show him that you are ignoring the collar and leash but giving him attention. That teaches that what you expect him to focus on is you, not the leash or collar. He will base his replacement associative response on your current expressed state. If you are agitated or angry when the collar is put on, then he associates the collar with you being angry. Likewise, if you are calm and dont pay much attention to the collar, he will associate the collar with something that can be ignored and will give you his focus instead of the collar. Once you are both relatively calm, you can pick up the collar and even rest the collar on his side, then start to ignore the collar again. It will break his focus on you initially, but when you start to ignore the collar, he should start to ignore it also. If the response is more negative than you like, keep working with the harness, but try putting the collar on his neck while communicating that you intend on taking him for a walk. Although the collar can be on, you can still use the harness for control while wearing the collar. When the walk is done, take the collar and leash off, but leave the harness on. This will start to create an association with collar and leash = walk. In general however, when trying to replace a negative association with a positive one, dont use any negative reinforcement or dominance at all during the process of putting the collar on, just calmness, and let him choose from the limited choice of ignore it that you offer.
Cesar Millan - Slip Leash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7gllm38sLI
Yes, lots of words for a short 10 second process. Next part is the walk itself. Goal here is that the leash has zero tension on it so Newman focuses on you while he walks by your side. I believe the leash should be secondary in control during a walk, so issue verbal commands and corrections first. If they start to pull, give a semi firm "Hey" or Cesar's "Shh", give a respond chance to respond and stop pulling, then if they dont, give a noticeable tug on the leash. If pulling continues at that point, turn around and walk the other direction. The whole process should only take maybe two or three minutes at most. If they dont respond as you expect within just a few minutes, then the issue isnt the dog, the issue is what you are communicating to the dog thru the leash. Check your own body language and posture again. Is the dog putting tension on the leash or are you? (Harness or Collar) The more wound up and agitated you are, the more they feel that and the more they become excited and disobedient themselves. The self-recheck just means you are expressing Calm Dominance here, a balance between the two states, and the arm holding the leash should be relaxed and not putting tension on the leash. Then its just a matter of walk 10 feet, they get in front, verbal command to turn around, fair chance to respond, and turn around. Wash, rinse, repeat. If you are doing things correctly and are both Calm and Dominant, then they should start to heel as you expect, with Calm Submission. Turning around after a correction is a means of Redirection. Many people think that intensifying the correction would be effective, but that starts a war of escalation. Redirection is a term that talks about redirecting their focus or energy, not necessarily a physical redirection. Redirection I think is highly effective because it doesnt require any increase in negative reinforcement.
We have the ability to heavily influence others by the body language we express. It isnt just limited to dogs, but people as well, including Cops and Judges and Employees. Our greatest difficulty as humans is that we have developed a very complex spoken language and have mostly forgotten about our body language, which is all other social species of animals primary form of communication. The concept of associative memory also extends to both body language and complex spoken language. For example, the word "apple" creates an image in your mind of a real apple, but the word "apple" itself is not an apple. The word brings up the image of an apple because it is associative with the sounds and the shapes of our letters with our experiences of real apples. Same thing with body language, some is learned, some is instinctual, but both are associative. Body postures can be interpreted as "words" in body language, which means everything is always speaking, and they are telling you how they are currently feeling about their current situation. Being able to read that body language is just a matter of practice. I remember a phrase but not sure where I got it from: "to hear what a dog is saying, all one has to do is listen". Lots gets lost as we try to translate body positions in to words that we have existing associations with, so we do make lots of mistakes. Its just continued efforts as we regain our ability to "speak body language" by building new associations with body positions and movements. This is what gives us the ability to tell whether we are the source of an excited dogs excitedness, or if the dog is reacting to something else. It is also why I am saying Calm Dominance over and over again. Actually, repeating is a Brain Hack so it is remembered, but point being that we remember Calm Dominance while in a leadership position with a dog.
Crate training. Personally, Im not fond of them. Mostly, its an upsell, but we can turn anything into a crate by the power of association. It could be something as simple as a pillow on the floor and doesnt necessarily mean "cage". Angela did have good advice by making the dogs "crate" (or pillow, or bed) their safe space where they can rest, since they associate that with a place that is their own and has no negative associations of punishment or corrections as best as we can provide. Personally, I like to let the dog associate the whole house as their crate, but not to 100% levels of safe space. Helps with potty training also. The anxiety you mentioned I think may be the result of a negative association that currently exists, and is also very similar to anxiety when you leave the house, so lets whack both of those at the same time.
This actually sounds more like Separation Anxiety when Lilly is in the bathroom crate, which is causing the negative association with the crate. I dont think its fully associative with the crate itself, but you leaving that is causing the anxiety. This one will take some patience to resolve. First thing is to rebuild the association of you leaving with being isolated for long periods of time. And I think we are gonna need two different tricks to fix this. We need to have an association between the crate and the state of mind you want her to be in when she is in there. Have her go to her crate and lay down. Next, just sit on the floor and be very relaxed until she emulates your state of mind. Once she relaxes, praise, then move about a bit. I suspect when you get up, she will want to get up also. So you'll have to sit back down again until you can get up and she stays in her crate. Next is to break the Separation Anxiety. Have Lilly in her crate and you have to leave very briefly, then come right back. Start with 5 seconds tops. Just in and out of the bathroom where her crate is at. That will build her confidence that "you will return" and replace the association of you leaving with being isolated for long periods of time. The key to both methods here is that you leave only when their state of mind is calm, and build that confidence by coming right back. Ive met people who took their dogs to the vet for pills to treat their Separation Anxiety. One couple had a dog that started to get wound up when one went to the bathroom while we were in the waiting room. Dog started getting wound up. So I had them make fools of themselves by walking in and out of the bathroom for five minutes. Duration of bathroom visit was to walk in and walk out, like 5 seconds tops. The dog eventually got bored of going into that excited state every time they left their immediate sight. Their dog didnt need pills, just to be taught that leaving does not mean long periods of isolation.
"OMG! Youre leaving? Noooooo! Hey, wait, youre back, did you forget something? Youre leaving again? Where did you go? Oh, youre back already? Oh boy, not again, are you gonna come back? Yep, youre right there. What was that all about? Now where are you going? Oh wait, youre already back? Oh, I see, as soon as you leave you just come right back. Humans are crazy. Okay, this is boring. *sigh* Im just gonna lay here while you do your crazy human in and out crap." Once a variation of that goes thru a dogs mind, you can practice leaving for longer periods of time. Be very incremental about leaving. Very briefly at first, then add a few seconds each time. A lot of it is to only leave when the dog is in a relaxed state because leaving while they are in an excited state reinforces the Separation Anxiety. Thus, when Lilly is in her crate in the bathroom, only leave when she is as calm as you can get her, and only very briefly at first. Separation Anxiety can be caused by a lack of "Return Confidence". In and out for such brief periods of time is not normal behavior for us because we leave to do things, then return. Those brief periods of time while we do our human things is associated with isolation and with a lack of Return Confidence (where you return to them), they start to question if you are ever coming back. In and Out answers that question that "you will return" no matter what. All of that is pretty well amplified by being a puppy which means lack of context on which to build correct associations with, and dogs are pack animals who don't enjoy long periods of isolation with an unknown factor of "Return" factored in.
But yeah, crates in general I think is associative on human part with "cage", and may be better associated with "bed" when it is treated like a bed and not a prison.
A lot of the body language that I talk about in dogs simply can not be expressed in a text based post. It is one of the reasons I think shows like Dog Whisperer are very effective. In text, we are limited in our perspectives and cant directly observe the context of a situation and miss a ton in the text. Thus, videos are highly recommended. I hope that by visually observing the body language of dogs in general, we can increase our own perspectives to understand how a dog feels and how to effectively guide them to an overall positive life.
The Dog Whisperer How to Raise the Perfect Dog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBWPxExzsrI
Any other questions?
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